Students, Faculty And Staff Collaborate With Community Leaders For True Civility

March is civility month and faculty, staff and students are taking a stand to be kind to one another.

Late last month, Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie, Dr. Robert Watson and the Lynn community kicked off Civility month with the reading of the civitas proclamation to encourage others to join in on acting with kindness and compromise when interacting with others. As Mayor Haynie began reading the proclamation aloud, there was one thing that lingered throughout the air: the culture of the Lynn community.

“It is kind of the way we have always done things here at the university,” said President Kevin Ross. “I am pleased that Dr. Watson brought the project to Lynn, but it also allows us to talk about how we operate. We have lots of people with multiple perspectives.”

“We are here in the Snyder sanctuary and this was built for people with all faiths and beliefs,” he continued. “So we have representation of this as well as our curriculum in the dialogues.”

With the Lynn community taking a stand to be civil for the month of March, the Boca Raton community is now urged to join in on the movement.

“We have these intentions of being civil for the month of March,” said Mayor Haynie. “I think it begins with that intention and I think a lot of people don’t realize that it is a choice to be kind, to be civil.”

The mayor continued to highlight why she believes certain people act out in the ways that they do, which ultimately casts a burden on the community.

“When people are angry or frightened, many times I don’t believe it is intentional,” she said. “But it seems that it is human nature to default to that, which is not good. We need to have that awareness and have that reset. I hope [that] civility month in Boca Raton certainly creates that.”

With the current political atmosphere, many believe that the world is divided and that bringing that piece of civility to the community could only facilitate positive outcomes.

“The side that is civil always prevails,” said Dr. Robert Watson. “Step one [is to] bring [civility] to the community and to make it part of our culture. Step two [is to] check our actions within the city and then the world.”

In the upcoming month, Dr. Watson will be working on a collection of nationally televised civility programs to be produced at Lynn. As for the Lynn community, students believe that taking part in this initiative is the first step in the right direction.

“I hope to see everyone be more civil, even though there are no serious issues of bigotry at Lynn,” said Max Casper, president of the civility club. “I am happy that we are doing this and I really hope [that] we can continue to be civil.”

“I am hoping [that] we can continue to build this club,” he continued. “And that this organization can become something much bigger and just grow as a community.”

Christina Diabo

Christina Diabo graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s of arts degree in multimedia journalism from Lynn last May. Now as a graduate assistant in the College of Communication & Design, Diabo hopes to pursue a career involving her skills and talents in the broadcast journalism industry, hoping to report for the Golf Channel.